Another Inner Sphere second-thought medium Mech, after the Vulcan, Trebuchet, Hermes II, etc.- apparently I'm typecast. But this time is different- because while I tolerate the Hermes II as a Marik player, and accept the Vulcan's important role (if not how it handles it), this is a Mech that the author actually really, really likes, despite his better judgement. It's generally bland and unappealing in most versions, easily outshined by the similar-sized Phoenix Hawk in almost every way, and yet... for some reason, there's a strong affinity here that I've never been able to entirely shake- and there's been effort. So let's talk Clints today. Note that due to the relatively small number of variants, we'll be covering the Clan IIC version as well here- double the article. Whether that's a positive or punishment depends on the reader's perspective, I suppose.
The Clint comes from the old SLDF days, when the League decided that it needed to deploy top-tier recon units to the Periphery. How such a request resulted in a Mech like the Clint is a story we'll probably never see, but must have some interesting procurement stories behind it- after all, there's not a lot of great 'recon' potential here. Built around a heavy and inefficient ballistic weapon early on, it relies on resupply capabilities that a recon unit is best not being tied to (again, see: Phoenix Hawk). There are advantages, but not many- perhaps the SLDF's massive supply chain was felt to be sufficient enough to compensate for any needs. Whatever the reason, this decision put the Clint behind the eight-ball from day one compared to its brethren. Battletech ballistic weapons are, at the very least at this point in the timeline, a very bad idea for a smaller machine.
(We'll cover the original 3025 model first in detail, then jump to looking at variants, including the original prototype)
The earliest model we find in real-world time is the CLNT-2-3T (this Mech's ID code is irritating), and coming up with a less-interesting medium Mech is a challenge. Nothing really stands out about it- it's got roughly average speed for its size at 6/9, with a standard 180m jump distance, just like the Phoenix Hawk- and allowing it to pace the kind of bug Mechs it will likely face a lot of in its role. The weaponry consists of an AC/5, a weapon of famously poor value to a Mech in this era due to its low damage and high weight, only partially redeemed by low heat. This is... god, what a dud of a choice for a Mech to be built around in this era. Note that the SLDF Sentinel is very similar in layout here in many ways, using an Ultra in place of the standard AC and a different layout of backup weapons, but similar enough to raise eyebrows. Those backup weapons on the Clint consist of twin medium lasers, nothing unusual or noteworthy there- same as everyone else has. One ton of ammo feeds the anemic cannon, plenty enough for operations away from supply lines as long as you're not stupid about your shooting.
So all in all, we got an average speed, average jump, thin-skinned, and poorly armed Mech for the scout role. Yay. On top of all that, we have in-universe fluff stating that the Mech was difficult to maintain and prone to breakdowns far beyond what most competitors would see- it's small wonder that this became a rare sight during the Succession Wars. A hangar-queen AND not worth the effort to keep running compared to its brethren? Sign me up, right? And the crazy thing is... this was the IMPROVED version.
Enter the original prototype, the CLNT-1-2R. What we have here is a sort of Panther-y idea in which the Mech is built around one heavy weapon at the expense of all other considerations- in this case, an AC/10. This gun had, we're told, an abysmal record in-service, and was replaced on the production model with the smaller AC/5 we saw before. To compensate for this, we see only one medium laser back up the cannon, no jump jets, and a single ton of ammo to give a typical engagements' worth of firing before needing a reload. This is just... this Mech sucks. There's no redeeming value here- the AC/10 is a poor weapon in most regards anyway, and this one has to watch its shots carefully if it deploys away from its home base for long. A single backup laser and no jets... little wonder the production model moved away from this version. Not everyone found it useless though, as we shall soon see...
The CLNT_2-4T was an attempt to turn the Clint into a sniper, with twin AC/2s in place of the AC/10 of the prototype. Same idea- no jump jets, single laser backing the chatter-guns up, one ton of ammo giving basic endurance to the guns. It's a Blackjack except worse in every possible way other than a meager increase in ground speed, and there's just no good reason to ever run one of these things outside of being handed one in a scenario. Just... don't.
Let's stop for a moment and talk about TRO:3050 for a bit. That beloved book took all of our old classics from the Succession Wars era and gave them facelifts with new tech, and it was... at best, mixed. Some designs got better, with some quirks to raise eyebrows- looking at the Shadow Hawk, for example, which is simply better than before but got an XL motor to make it a little less durable- worth the trade in that case, but still concerning. Other designs were just odd, like the Trebuchet getting a Narc launcher. And some were just absolutely ruined beyond usefulness, like the Goliath or Panther. It's honestly hard to find an upgrade for a Mech that was just flat-out good with no drawbacks to bring things back down.
Enter the CLNT-2-3U. This is, and I'll die on this hill, the single best upgrade any Mech got in that book- period. It flies under the radar a bit due to its rarity and small size, but don't sleep on this monster- everything the old Clint sucked at, this version got SCARY about. And it did all that without any 'well, except...' trick like the Shadow Hawk had. It's just better- possibly the only Mech to claim that in that book. And it starts by ripping out that stupid autocannon in favor of an ER PPC. Yowza. Range is better, power is better, ammo is gone, there's just no downside here... other than the ferocious heat, which is why we have double heat sinks on board now. It'll still warm a bit if you jump and fire the big gun, but a good sniper Mech- and that's what this is now- should disengage every so often and cool down anyway. Bouncing around at the fringes of combat, delivering hammerblows with the PPC, a Clint now is a truly dangerous unit rather than an irritant. The medium lasers are upgraded to pulse models, which makes them a bit heavy, but accurate- handy in case of dealing with other small, fast units, as the Clint is designed to do. There's just no real drawbacks here- the hidden gem of its era. The FedCom lucked out here, only mitigated by the lack of numbers to work with.
When Kerensky took his toys and went home at the end of the war against Amaris, among those toys were some of the early Clint prototypes- the one with the AC/10. This can't have impressed much of anyone in the SLDF-in-Exile, nor the Clans who rose later from their remnants, but at some point someone looked at a Clint and said "You know... we could make this not suck..." Enter the Clint IIC, a Clan attempt at making a Clint- and you know what? Bravo. Not a great Mech, but has some serious clout for what it is. The gun was replaced with a Clan LB-10X, giving the Mech that always-useful dual-role punch between heavy hitting AC rounds and shotgun-blast cluster rounds. For a Clan second-line unit, that's huge- but it always sucks to have to pick between ammo types, you only get so much ammo to haul, right? Not today, freebirth. FOUR TONS of ammo feed the cannon- bring whatever the hell mixture you want to the party. ER medium lasers replace the original models as well for extra fun times. The Clans also installed jump jets for a little extra happiness. This is all courtesy of an XL engine- no surprise, but the Clan tech means the loss of a side torso isn't the end of the Mech. The odd choice to install an XL but stick with ten single heat sinks is a curious one though, and makes a Clint IIC a bit tricky to really love sometimes, particularly if the lasers have to start barking. This Mech is popular with the Snow Ravens who make it, was traded heavily to the Blood Spirits, and through trade also shows up in Ghost Bear forces. (The Star Adders likely have plenty as well following their clashes with the Spirits). As an anti-vehicle machine, a Clint IIC has few equals- cheap, simple, rugged, and able to operate for ages away from home. Just... bring extra ice for your drink, because it's gonna get warm.
The Lyrans apparently found the Davion-owned Clints among them in the AFFC appealing, because somewhere along the line they got in on Clint production, because [AUTHOR NOTE: Add inexplicable reason in space provided: _____________ ]. This seems like too big of a change to the design to be a field refit the way the 2-3U was, suggesting the Lyrans are building this thing somewhere- it would be a surprise for such an extensive refit to be applied to such a rare machine in Steiner space to begin with. Regardless the CLNT-5U (wait, a normal-ish designation?) sees an LFE installed along with endo structure, freeing up a lot of weight. The main gun is now an ER large laser, a good choice for a sniper, with three ER medium lasers backing that up (two in the left torso, one in the center). Anyone looking at this and thinking 'didn't you guys already make this and call it a Wolfhound?' can be forgiven for that assumption- clearly the WLF influence is strong here. But the bigger Clint adds in those jump jets, and here it also gains another neat trick- a C3 slave module, allowing those sniper shots to work even better. A TAG spotting system allows for calling in artillery as well, a handy backup job. The author was VERY impressed with what Steiner brewed up here, though the two extra heat sinks don't really deal with the Mech's ferocious heat buildup as well as one would like- be careful of how you run it. These went into service just as the Civil War began, and probably were very popular among both sides- though how widespread they were, with their questionable production background, is impossible to say.
Fast forward a few years, and we find our first Jihad-era upgrade is a simple, Capellan-smelling upgrade to the already-fantastic 2-3U. This one, the CLNT-2-3UL, swaps the PPC out for a plasma rifle and three tons of ammo- lovely! The pulse lasers become ER models to save a little weight. Simple upgrade, and handy the plasma rifle is a fantastic weapon, and with plenty of ammunition it's going to be out there causing problems with the new styrofoam-gun for ages before needing to come in for more. Warm-running if you push it, but a great Mech for irritating high-heat enemy Mechs like Black Knights or Sagittaires... or making vehicles disappear. This may have been the author's favorite Clint version in testing, and is an excellent way to aggravate your opponent.
CLNT-3-3T (god, I hate this Mech's code) is a Taurian model that came out early in the Jihad. Taking the original AC/5 production model and swapping the gun for a light AC/5 is a sideways move, losing a bit of range but dropping weight as well. That weight goes into ammo- two tons, allowing for special munitions- as well as ferro-fibrous armor and CASE. Few things irritate the author more than a weight drop that gets frittered away on useless garbage (again, TRO:3050 is a tough read sometimes), but this takes the freed-up weight and really improves the machine overall, despite the loss of range. This is a pretty great Mech, really- not a battlefield-dominator by any means, but very useful, and should be considered if you're building an era-appropriate Taurian force.
We may (MAY) have an answer to where the Lyran production of the CLNT-5U came from... in that the Blakists started building a variant on Hesperus called the CLNT-6S, and it would be weird to capture those facilities and retool them to build a Clint variant instead of something else they were already making. (Conjecture, but it seems logical) The Blakists made for a pretty big change though, with a bigger engine bumping the Clint up to 7/11 ground speed, but losing the jump jets in the bargain- your mileage may vary on that swap, but the author found it disappointing. The weaponry though is nothing to sneeze at, with two ER large lasers (!!!) inhabiting the right arm. Twe ER mediums in the left torso and an odd ER small in the head round out this flashbulb. That all sounds sobering, but the twelve double heat sinks are even more taxed now than they were on the 5U, and the loss of the jump jets makes it harder to hop away to cool down. The odd addition of a small cockpit further sours things, though the heavy-ferro armor and lack of ammo do make this a tough Clint to bring down. Overall, not a fan- one wishes that the TAG was still here, or that the C3 wasn't removed and instead was replaced with C3i. As it is, this struggles to fit a Blakist force outside of garrison-level stuff, and it's kind of expensive for that role.
Around this time, in Clan space, the Ravens restarted production of the Clint IIC- likely recognizing that they had an opportunity both to fill out their own anemic ground forces a bit better with a rugged, simple Mech, and an opportunity to trade them off to other Clans needing to restock in the face of the Jihad and Wars of Reaving going on. The result was a new variant, the Clint IIC-2. The LB-10X is gone (booooo), replaced with a trio of medium pulse lasers (yay?)- the total, with the existing pair of lasers getting upgraded as well, is a munchtastic five pulse lasers to make life miserable with. Remember how the original design was a good scout hunter? This is a Clan-made scout nightmare, even the fastest units like Fire Moths can't escape the flurry of beams from these things. The heat sinks got a much-needed boost to doubles as a result of this new heat output, but still only ten- this runs hot, so be careful. The eight improved jump jets definitely don't help the heat problem, but DO make for a Mech that can rapidly bring the lasers to bear on a target. Ferro-fibrous armor and an ECM suite round out this impressive but very-hot Mech, one that the author didn't enjoy as much as the original IIC, but has respect for regardless. The status of production of either IIC model after the Ravens' departure from the Homeworlds- whether any of the remaining Clans picked up where the Ravens left off, or whether the Ravens set up production in the Outworlds region- is unknown.
In the Dark Age era, we have one final Clint variant, CLNT-3-4T. This seems to be a new production model, apparently sharing components with the new Cadaver light Mech to streamline logistics (and make an always-troublesome design more reliable). It then starts by using reflective armor, an odd choice if you're worried about reliability. From there, we see an LB-5X with a single ton of ammo, because who wants to get to pick ammo types in combat? Twin medium X-pulse lasers are here for added muscle on what feels like a modern take on the original production model, but honestly this uses a lot of odd choices to make a Mech that feels like a nice concept, but falls flat.
We have two custom variants to discuss as well. The first, the CLNT-2-3T 'Denton', is a simple changeout on the original 3025 model, dropping the AC/5 for a large laser, then filling out the remaining tonnage with heat sinks. This. Is. GOOD. Better firepower, no ammo, only a minor loss of range, and a full jump plus the new laser is heat neutral, not words used often in that era. It's easy to see (in hindsight) how this could have lead engineers to the 3050 upgrade later. The shame is that it is a unique Mech and thus hard to add to a force, because this is an underrated gem for its era.
An odd duck shows up in the hands of one Natalia Porter, later by her daughter Carolyn Fischer (I see what you did there, devs. Cute.). This is a rare instance of a Clan Mech- a Clint IIC- being refitted with Inner Sphere equipment. Reinforced-ballistic armor sheathes the Mech in a tough shell, leaves the twin Clan ER mediums from the original IIC in place, then adds a large VSP in place of the old autocannon. The author isn't a big VSP fan, but acknowledges the usefulness of a weapon as versatile as this. A single medium re-engineered laser is also added to the fun. All of this is then tied into an IS-tech targeting computer for a little extra fun. The standard heat sinks are upgraded to doubles, but only ten- so this runs warm. How useful this is in combat- or whether to consider anything from XTRO: Royal Fantasy to be canon to begin with- is up to the reader.
So, there we have it. A Mech that has some bland, overlooked variants, and a couple that are just astonishingly good, all in a very homely, humanoid package that most players will- let's be real- overlook in most situations. And some variants really SHOULD be overlooked. Others are ignored at your great peril. So, tell us about your Clint stories- using them, fighting them, etc., and don't hesitate to go make a version or two of your own in the Fan Designs area!
